I know it sounds obvious. And from experience I know that saying
something so simple will bring the trolls out. And I have a
penchant for feeding the trolls.

But trust me when I say that my observations across many startups
(and other companies, frankly) is that not enough time goes into
thinking.

Some of my biggest breakthroughs have come in what seems like
lazy time. Every so often after a few weeks of go-go-go I work
from home from a day. I walk down from my bedroom and stay at my
computer un-showered and in a hat for 10 straight hours. Or I
will get some good time in at a hotel just zoning out and
thinking.

I have my best creative break-throughs this way. I like to think
with blank pieces of paper and a pen. I’ve talked in the past
about how I manage my own creative
process. If you struggle to find moments of creativity
you might read that post.

I also have huge creative spurts when I run. I zone out and think
about how things could be different. And I often will get out a
pen and paper afterward. Every now and again I like to drive from
LA to San Francisco (6 hours) in stead of flying. It gives me
tons of zone out time with visual stimulation to get the brain
going.

If you’re not taking this zone-out down time I’ll bet you’re not
having enough strategic reflection on your job, your company,
your strategy.

Startups are filled with the stresses of the here and now and
it’s hard to break out of this mold of focusing two feet in front
of you. Frankly, I think venture capital is that way, too. How do
VCs break out of group think when they are shuttling from one
board meeting to the next, from one conference to the other and
talking with all the same people?

I was at the Lobby Conference a few weeks ago in
Mexico. My wife and I went down 3 days early and had
some chill out time. I had one of the biggest mental
breakthroughs about what I want to do differently at GRP Partners
in 2013. I want to make sure that my sixth year as a VC doesn’t
just become an automatic continuation of what I’ve done in my
first 5 years. I don’t want to be on autopilot. I woke up super
early one morning and wrote out my manifesto. I know, I’m weird.

I am inspired by the constant innovation in our industry by First
Round Capital like the Dorm Room Fund,
their expansion to Philadelphia (I
hope they also have a secret plot to replace Andy Reid while
there), the exchange fund and
other initiatives. And I don’t want to be complacent.

How does this changing world affect me? My fund? How can I raise
the bar? How does the world in Los Angeles intersect differently
with venture capital? How can I play to my strengths?

Think.

I can’t make big leap forwards in Do mode.

Do you find yourself too much in email mode? I regularly shut
down my email so that I don’t get pop-up alerts when I’m working.
I turn off my phone so it won’t ring. I close my Twitter tab.
These small dopamine-soaked distractions will cut into your
Think time. Trust me.

Think.

Sometimes somebody in my office will ask if “they can just get 5
quick minutes” and they will see a zombie look on my face as I
rush through my office. I can feel a spinning in my head when I
know that I have something I need to get down on paper. I can
feel the ideas needing to come out and I know if I get distracted
I will lose them. I beeline for my office, give off my zombie
vibe, shout out, “not now, maybe later” and I head for my desk. I
need to think. Undistracted. No music. Concentrate. Think.

This is one of the positive signs of ADD that nobody ever talks
about. I do get these extreme moments of clarity and the need to
shut down all of the bullshit I’m working on (or usually it’s a
meeting that I randomly need to leave because it’s driving me
totally fucking nuts and I need to be alone) and I need to get
something out. I learned about this behavior and how to channel
it from my favorite book about ADD, Delivered from Distraction.
Don’t let anybody tell you ADD is only a weakness.

And What About the Opposite?

And I know that it sounds almost silly to say that some people
Think too much and don’t Do enough. But that’s exactly what
happens to many people.

The number of times I’ve had people come to me and say they want
to blog more. They think it would be good for them.
Think not. Do. (go on,
click it )

Or people who think all sorts of ideas about how they want to
quit their job and try a startup. Or quit their startup to do
something different. Or they want to travel more. See the world.
Visit China.

The world is filled with over-Thinkers. For sure.

And then there is the missing link. It’s what connects Thinking
and Doing. And that’s Planning.

For
me the best way to put Thinking into action is to creatively
brainstorm a plan of action. I literally will sit down in a
brainstorming session and draw up a list of actions that would
have to take place in order to make my goals a reality. Since I
think visually I often do this in the form group lists with
inter-dependencies or in the form of a GANTT chart.

Without dedicating time to Planning you will never optimally turn
your ideas into reality. You will never connect your Think and
Do.

There is a sort of rhythm to people’s personality types
that often slot them into one of three buckets.

1. I think the best leaders are Thinkers. They often need teams
of people to help them Plan how to turn their ideas into
realities. They are “shapers” not “completer / finishers.” The
best leaders know this about themselves and surround themselves
with people who complement them. Without c/f’s I’d be hosed. Just
ask my wife.

2. The best managers are Planners. They are really good at
creating lists of actions and monitoring performance of those
actions. Manager isn’t a bad word. They are the absolute
lifeblood of any organization. If this is you, you know the
drill. You’re very organized. You keep meticulous notes. You are
very good about getting things done and make sure others do as
well. You keep the trains running on time. You’re not quite as
creative in “breaking out of the box” and doing daring new
things. That’s ok. You know that about yourself. And you’re
comfortable having that crazy CEO around you. Secretly, you love
that you know she couldn’t do her job effective without you.

3. And the best individual contributors are Doers. This can be
your star Chief Architect who loves to code but hates having to
handle the admin like testing, documentation, recruiting, etc. It
can also be your star salesperson who doesn’t want to have to
manage a team because he simply wants to earn his paycheck and
get on with his life. I’ve written about these sales mavericks before.

A great team needs all types. And you need to identify your own
strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur and how to surround
yourself with people who complement you.

If
you are a startup entrepreneur already my guess is that you have
a heavy bias towards the Do that comes with the territory.

Make sure you take some lazy time to zone out and Think. Don’t
put pressure on yourself to fill out every last minute of the
day. And do your best after a good Think session to put your
ideas onto paper and see if you can’t turn it into a Plan. Even
if you have to ask for help from others to turn the Think into
Do.

What Do You Plan to Do About Thinking?

This week is Thanksgiving. The classic American week where you
have downtime.

Three years ago during Thanksgiving I told Nivi I would write down what I look for in an
entrepreneur for a series of posts for VentureHacks. and it forced me to spend some
serious time thinking about what I really look for when I make
investments. It culminated in a series of blog
posts I wrote while on Thanksgiving break that were
transformational in giving me a mental model for what was
important to me in venture.

This year I promised myself I would write a series of posts on
what I believe is changing in the venture capital model and what
I plan to do about it. My mental model on this is very different
than how it has been framed in the press to date so I’m excited
to have some downtime to think.